Instead of heading out with the tracker to secure the teleportation circle leading to Integrated Space, Thalion did something else entirely.
This short period of peace couldn't be wasted and when else would he ever find the time to craft a proper suit of armor?
It would still take some time until he could evolve to D-grade, so rushing levels right now seemed unnecessary. Should the Chosen find them early, twenty levels more or less wouldn't make much of a difference. Their enemies had multiple Chosen while they only had Ricarda, who was still weaker than Thalion. He also needed to make sure that things stayed that way because otherwise there might be entirely different problems on the horizon. She was already growing rapidly with the new plant he had brought her. The thing had already reached over eighty meters in height and bathed everyone leaving the base in its unique and mesmerizing aura.
All in all, Thalion believed that beginning work on his armor and thinking about how he wanted to progress with his forms from here onward was the best choice.
He was the boss of this camp, so finding someone else for the scouting mission wasn't difficult.
In the end, the task landed on Pikar, who had spent the morning bragging about how his new dragonfly, combined with the unique food and special mutation, was now thirty percent faster than the previous one while also being more agile.
Pikar was far from thrilled about being sent on a scouting mission, but he didn't complain out loud.
With everything sorted out, Thalion began preparing for what would likely become a very long crafting session.
At first, he gathered materials from the elven smiths who complained loudly about it. Most of them were from Integrated Space and still viewed humans quite differently. Not that the other elves in their camp were much better, but at least they had already experienced a small glimpse of Thalion's true power.
Thalion acquired a hammer together with all the tools he needed for forging, several rune formations, and a number of crystals.
He planned to construct a blood pond where he could place pieces of his armor whenever he wasn't actively working on them. This way they could slowly absorb power over time and become increasingly resilient.
When it came to the design of the armor, Thalion already had a fairly clear vision.
His previous armor from the tutorial had been melted by the fire elf, which meant this one had to be significantly more durable or it would be completely useless. Now he had access to far better materials, a superior forging skill, and he had also learned from his previous mistakes.
The old armor had contained many runes that simply weren't necessary. There were crystals dedicated to amplifying his fear aura and blood skills, but this time he intended to focus almost entirely on resistance while leaving a little room for additional modifications later.
This armor would also be considerably heavier than the last one.
The larger sections such as the breastplate would be forged from thick layers of metal that nothing should be able to penetrate once properly enchanted. Only the joints would use the scale-like technique from his first armor. This way he could remain agile while still being protected against Chosen.
The joints would naturally remain weak points, but first an enemy would have to hit them and secondly every suit of armor had weak points. No design could truly eliminate that problem.
They should still be extremely difficult to pierce.
He would also need several powerful crystals.
According to Seraphina, gigantic crystals existed in the depths of the ocean. The only reason they hadn't been brought back to the base was because they were guarded by early D-grade beasts and nobody was currently strong enough to defeat them.
At some point Thalion would have to pause his crafting and retrieve those crystals.
Getting them out of the water would be difficult since they no longer possessed spatial rings large enough to simply store them away.
Overall, Thalion was very confident that he could finish the armor within the next few months.
There would probably be fighting during that time, but as long as he got the design right the rest would mainly consist of rune carving and tempering the materials.
The process would also require enormous amounts of blood. Corrupting the larger crystals alone would be expensive and the forging itself would consume even more.
This time he also intended to create a proper helmet.
He already had a design in mind that combined a futuristic shape with five crown-like thorns rising upward from the top. All five thorns would be made from crystals and if everything worked as intended they should provide a substantial boost to the runes.
At first, Thalion focused solely on the design without tempering any materials.
It had been a long time since he had last worked on a full suit of armor.
The first twenty pieces were complete failures which honestly dampened his mood considerably. At this pace the project would take even longer than he had originally expected.
From time to time he stopped to study some of the runes he had obtained from the elves in the hope of finding something useful to add.
After crafting continued to fail for another two days and the only things he successfully produced were simple pieces such as shin guards, he decided to try something different.
Not permanently, but he also needed to figure out how to properly enchant materials with his blood.
So there was nothing wrong with doing that now before his motivation dropped any lower.
The Primordial Bloodseed was quite resilient when it came to donating blood to the cause and Thalion already foresaw a massive struggle ahead when it was finally time to corrupt the giant crystals.
The effect was far beyond what he had expected.
Besides dark red lines appearing across the armor, the material also became so resistant that it was hard to carve anything into it afterward. Saranya could still cut through it easily, which meant it was far from good enough, but it was a start.
"Hey, do I look like a crafting tool to you?" Saranya complained when he drew a few runes on the enchanted pieces.
"I’m not going to spend hours carving those runes when I can just use you and be done in a few minutes. By the way, how did your father make you this sturdy?" Thalion asked.
He didn't have high hopes, but maybe she knew something that would make crafting easier.
"My father was the greatest smith our world has ever seen and he spent thousands upon thousands of years perfecting his craft. No one in the empire could replicate what he accomplished. His foresight and intelligence were unmatched." Saranya said, her voice breaking multiple times.
"Sorry. Shouldn't have asked." Thalion muttered before turning back to the plate he had just enchanted.
The skill claimed it would provide special insights into crafting, but so far all it had done was make the material far stronger than should have been possible.
"But I have a rough idea of what he did." Saranya added.
"Okay, that's a start. Let's hear it." Thalion said, his hopes immediately rising.
If he could create armor even remotely as powerful as his sword then the D-grades would have a very difficult time killing him.
"Well, I know that the materials I am made from were tempered for hundreds of years and then a special alchemical flame was used to shape them into the sword I am now. That can't have been everything, but it is all I know. Ah, wait. There was always a discussion he had with another smith. They called him stupid for continuing to enchant materials that were already overflowing with power and supposedly couldn't absorb any more. Father always insisted that even if the effects couldn't be seen immediately, the additional enchantments still had a significant impact. But that is all I know."
Saranya’s answer almost destroyed Thalion’s hopes.
Still, it was something.
From now on he would throw every piece of armor into the blood pond whenever he didn't actively need it.
Speaking of the blood pond, he should probably get started on that as well. He already had a few plates he could place inside.
Thalion was beginning to grow sincerely annoyed with the entire process. So much time was passing and he still wasn't anywhere close to his goal.
The blood pond received twelve crystals that immediately began charging the blood with mana before Thalion carefully placed several armor plates into it.
It would likely take days before he could even begin connecting the individual pieces together and afterward he might have to redo some of them entirely.
Either way there was still a grueling process ahead of him.
Another idea slowly crept into his thoughts.
Originally he had obtained the crafting skill with the intention of upgrading the amulet someday, but now he wasn't sure that was the correct path forward.
First of all, he was far from being an exceptional craftsman. He was good thanks to his time in the Golden Palace, but the amulet was overflowing with captured souls or what remained of them. He considered it far too risky to directly enchant the artifact with his blood.
Yet another possibility had appeared.
The Eclipsari grew stronger through fear, suffering, agony, and several other rather unpleasant emotions.
So what would happen if he fused the amulet with the sinister darkness elemental residing within the Eclipsari's chest?
Maybe he could even learn abilities similar to Ankhet’s.
Ankhet had sacrificed soul wisps to unleash terrifying offensive abilities or used them to empower his body directly. To Thalion that sounded like the perfect next step for the Eclipsari.
Of course he had absolutely no idea how to manipulate souls in the first place, but it was definitely worth investigating.
Maybe the gods could find him a creature with abilities related to soul manipulation.
Thalion simply didn't want to ask right now because the gods probably believed he was currently on his way to secure the teleportation circles leading to Integrated Space.
They probably hadn't yet realized he was largely ignoring their orders because otherwise an elf would have already shown up informing him that he was urgently needed somewhere.
Most likely they hadn't bothered asking any mortals whether Thalion had actually left for the teleportation circle.
The others also didn't know about his assigned mission, so it would have been difficult for them to tell the gods even if they wanted to.
And most of them probably didn't have the opportunity anyway.
The only people with direct access to the gods were Ricarda and Thalion.
Well, there were also his friends who were currently training inside the divine domain, but aside from them almost nobody had any direct contact with the gods.
That the gods were so heavily invested in their faction was also troubling.
Thalion didn't believe for a second that they were doing it purely because they liked them.
No, it was far more likely that the gods feared their little mortal faction, which had gained so much attention throughout the wider multiverse, would be destroyed the moment a larger faction with a Chosen managed to locate them.
They weren't weak, but against factions like the elves, orcs, humans, or vampires they would likely be wiped out rather quickly.
Just one more reason to continue crafting, Thalion thought before returning to the helmet he had already failed to create twenty times.
His crafting frenzy lasted another four days before it was interrupted by a knock on the door.
The sound wasn't loud, but with his enhanced hearing there was no chance he would miss it.
After four days of slowly improving at producing failures, Thalion was actually quite happy to have a distraction.
When he opened the broad door of the mansion he found a young man standing outside who still seemed unsure whether coming here had been a good idea.
"What do you want?" Thalion asked, slightly perplexed.
He couldn't remember ever seeing the man before.
The fellow had short blond hair, blue eyes, and dark red skin. Thalion guessed he was one of those humans who spent most of their time underwater.
"Ehm... So... there is this thing I wanted to ask." The young man quickly sped up when he noticed Thalion's skeptical gaze. "The portal. You know, the portal leading to the gods."
"Yes, I know. What do you want?" Thalion asked, becoming increasingly confused.
Was this fellow trying to tie his brain into a knot?
"Well, I also wanted to ask..." The man swallowed nervously. "Actually, I already asked if I could go through for training, but the elves said no. They are also taking most of the resources, which is why we really need some extra training."
The words tumbled out of him as if he expected to be beaten for even mentioning the subject.
"Interesting. You did the right thing by coming to me. Who exactly is withholding the resources?" Thalion asked.
He had never personally appointed anyone to manage such things, but he had assumed Pikar was handling the organizational side reasonably well.
The young man wasn't weak either. His level was respectable and his aura definitely wasn't bad. He looked like someone worth investing in, especially if he was willing.
"The name is Erinur. He's an elf from Integrated Space. One of the elves who stepped through the gods' portal and carries out their tasks personally." The young man answered quickly before adding, "The other elves help him whenever they can. Especially when it comes to collecting valuable materials from us after deep dives."
Thalion was really starting to lose patience with those elves.
It was already getting late and most of the boats would soon return since diving at night was still far too dangerous.
"Tell everyone to gather at the plaza in one hour. Then we'll have a more detailed discussion."
"Of course. As you wish, sir." The young man quickly bowed before hurrying away.
This was annoying, but the more Thalion thought about the situation the more he realized it had surfaced at exactly the right time.
In a few more weeks Ricarda might reach D-grade and that could interfere with what Thalion had planned for the elves.